Doug Wilson and That Awkward Problem of Antisemitism and Racial Animus in the CREC

Few things are more maddening in the political world than an elected official who dramatically upbraids a government scoundrel in a congressional hearing, then basks in the viral online-clip boost he gets from it as the scoundrel gets off scot-free.

"Sure, the guy got away with it," the politician might say to an objector, "but that wasn't my fault. I agree with my constituents that this guy is a bad guy. I said he was bad and even yelled at him on TV. What more do you want? My hands are clean!"

This is the old dodge we know as "plausible deniability," a concept the Cambridge Dictionary defines as "the ability to say in a way that seems possibly true that you did not know about something or were not responsible for something."

Plausible deniability isn't just a problem in politics, either. Given some recent developments in the ecosystem of the Moscow, Idaho-based Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, the church entity's media-savvy pastor Doug Wilson appears to be employing a similar tactic to avoid issuing a direct moral and biblical repudiation of the rising racial prejudices and antisemitism among "Woke Right" Christian Nationalists in his own backyard.

This issue first began to catch fire back in February, when Blake Callens, author of "The Case Against Christian Nationalism," released an X post thread, outlining evidence of white nationalist/kinist ideology and antisemitism finding open support among members of a CREC church, Christ the Redeemer in Pella, Iowa. Callens showed group pictures of its pastor and other church members gathering with known white-nationalist authors and provided online evidence that they shared similar ideology.     

A few days later, Wilson responded to the thread in two blog posts (here and here), while also taking to X to accuse Callens of being a "slanderer" for "ignoring" the Pella CREC church's January 2023 "statement on ethnicity" -- leaving observers to wonder how not typing something into a computer could possibly be characterized as "slander," which is spoken defamation.

Also accusing Callens of "slander" was Pella member Shane Anderson, who was among those named in the thread. Highlighting that the Pella church session made the statement against racially motivated sin, Anderson insisted he was not a "kinist or white nationalist or racist."

Besides, Wilson wrote at the time, the CREC is working on a "memorial" -- a kind of statement the CREC says it issues "on which a confessional statement has not yet been made" -- to deal with problems on the "ethnic balance" issues within. And by the way, the Pella church, Wilson claimed, "was attacked for ministering to and fellowshipping with some folks who would not have been included on the committee that drafted our memorial." This, as he also called Callens "unhinged" and told him to "pound sand." The best defense is a good offense? Not very ministerial.

Seven months later, online searches indicate that Wilson's promised CREC "memorial" has not yet materialized publicly, while recent statements from Anderson and other CREC-affiliated figures have only underscored that statements and pending statements aren't doing much to fix the very real and continuing "ethnic balance" issues in Wilson's church body -- or among "Woke Right" Christian Nationalists, in general.

Recent case in point: Anthony Diehl, a CREC church member, came under fire days ago for posting that he now understands why Wilson and CREC pastor Uriesou Brito "are working hard to root out antisemitism amongst our ranks. When they both started speaking on it, I thought it was reactionary, but it's growing quickly and deeply, and it's pretty disheartening, to be honest." Brito responded: "Thanks for your testimony through all of this."

Awkwardly, Internet sleuths soon posted a number of Diehl's posts denigrating Jews as "owning the entire porn industry," criticizing another poster for having a "Jew star" in a bio and stating that "Hitler did have a point." This is a "testimony" against antisemitism worthy of a CREC pastor's praise? 

Also a few days ago, Anderson -- under his "DailyGenevan"  handle on X -- posted: "Uncomfortable question for Americans who believe our myth of equality: Which social/societal approach would be more likely to bless the people of Haiti with an expansion of the gospel and its good fruits: democracy or slavery?" He also commented on another post about the low IQs of Haitians, while also claiming that he wasn't advocating for their enslavement, yet remarking: "And people still argue that slavery is inherently unkind."

Additionally, Anderson posted an article that advocated for racial segregation in schools and asserted that a "race realist" could answer an opponent by saying, "Everyone is a white supremacist of some sort."

But Wilson, as of this writing, has not uttered a peep about any of it. Why should he? Well, not only is he at the helm of the CREC, but it could be argued reasonably that the "Woke Right" Christian Nationalist movement owes its very cultural ascension to him.

It was Wilson's Canon Press, after all, that published Stephen Wolfe's "The Case for Christian Nationalism," the 2022 book that launched this whole new, twisted blend of cultural outrage, antisemitism, racial hatred and creepy authoritarian yearning for an American version of "theocratic Caesarism" in the first place.

Wilson also endorsed the book, writing: "The Case for Christian Nationalism is a carefully reasoned case for an approach that our nation had at our founding, and should never have abandoned. We are today living in the wreckage of that abandonment. Stephen Wolfe is to be thanked for having the courage and learning to show us our way back.” Yet two years after the book's release, the quickest perusal of the fruit of this movement doesn't yield a thankful heart for Wolfe, so much as it brings the Lord Jesus' warnings in Matthew 7:15-20 to mind.

It also has been Wilson who continues to appear in media interviews (and at conferences and in roundtable discussions) with some of the other biggest names in this dangerous Christian Nationalism movement: Andrew Isker, Joel Webbon, Oklahoma State Sen. Dusty Deevers, Eric Conn and  Brian Sauve, to name a few. And yet, so voluminous is his writing and online commentary and interview output regarding Christian Nationalism that no one possibly can consume it all, leaving Wilson the opportunity to deny just about any bad position he's taken by pointing out that you failed to consume the very opposite position he took in this book or that article or this video over here.. Plausible deniability, indeed.

The bottom line is that it's outrageous that media-ubiquitous Wilson -- the prolific political and cultural icon, the man Tucker Carlson called "the Christian nationalist they warned you about" -- apparently doesn't think this or myriad other examples of "ethnic imbalance" in Christian Nationalist circles is worthy of even one simple, sharp, public rebuke. Are we not to heed the words of Eph. 5:11: "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them?"

No doubt any critique lamenting Wilson's lack of public urgency about the matter would be met with yet another laborious explanation that CREC memorials like this take time, folks. And remember that the CREC never does anything its adversaries say it should do, because this is about God. And we certainly wouldn't want to interfere with the "fellowship" within a bunch of -- how did Wilson put it online? -- "people who are in dire need of pastoral care working through their ethnic issues," people he says "should be simultaneously brought to the Lord's Table, and also kept away from microphones."

Maybe if Wilson turned down a few more microphones himself, particularly those offered by some of the worst men in "Woke Right" Christian Nationalism, he'd have time both to rebuke those who need rebuking and address why his delay in speaking out hasn't been confined to mere months. Wilson writes: "There have been CREC discussions for a few years now about how some CREC members and adjacent folks have been conducting themselves online, with some of that connected to Pella."

A few years? What's the holdup in dealing with this trend of besetting sins? What is stopping Wilson from offering at least a general public reprimand and statement condemning such reprehensible behavior? When you are at the top of your church body, with a big subculture presence to boot, you certainly don't need a communion-wide "memorial" or drafted doctrinal statement in order to put out an X post containing some honest Christian conviction.

Why not say something like this? "I am grieved to see a growing and disturbing number of people within the Christian Nationalist movement, and even within my own communion, who are engaging in antisemitic and racially offensive speech. Jesus Christ, our Jewish savior, told us to love our neighbors. The apostles and prophets upon which the church was founded were Jewish, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). Heaven will be filled 'a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Rev. 7:9).' Antisemitism and racial animus is absolutely unbiblical and ungodly and will not be tolerated in the CREC, and I call upon anyone engaged in this sinful behavior to stop and repent of it immediately."

That is not a violation of Matthew 18:15-17. In fact, it would be a fully appropriate and needed statement for members of the CREC, “Woke Right” Christian Nationalists, the whole Body of Christ and that ever-watching world.

Also, something tells me that if a number of Pella church members suddenly started getting sex changes or declaring themselves "non-binary," Wilson wouldn't wait years for a "memorial" to condemn it. It's all a matter of priority.

Addressing openly stated antisemitism and racial hatred within the CREC -- or anywhere within the ranks of the Christian Nationalism movement that Wilson helped launch -- also dare not be delayed for another year or two, especially not as we consider that the German Christian movement's sinful embrace of Nazi antisemitism is becoming frighteningly more relevant to our own situation every day.

More and more Christians are noticing this evil shift and are speaking up against the growing prejudice against the Jewish people and those of other racial backgrounds that we see within Christian Nationalism. I praise God for them.

To Doug Wilson, I say: Join us. It’s time.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." Ecc. 3: 1, 7